Friday, 15 February 2008

Pic. 2 shows 0.3mm diam. location wires across the frames to position the 0.8mm thick REAR p.c.b. spacer. It helps enormously to have these wires in place to hold the spacers, otherwise it can be quite a balancing act to hold them square and flat etc, whilst soldering in place. This is especially important for any spacer with a bolt fixing hole/s in it for obvious reasons, although (don't despair!) there's always your small round needle file to drift/enlarge any misaligned hole!You'll find out later, when you offer the fooltplate etc. to the assembled frames, if they fit exactly or not. Note the Body Sub Frame (Kit Part 18) in the background, just left of the assembly jig, with the holed plate that will ultimately use the rear fixing bolt.

The Association specification called for the accommodation of three types/size of motor in the tender.A) 3-251 Mashima 9/16 motor / 3-253 Hanazono H17 Open framed types.B) Maxon type Coreless 10/17.C) Coreless 12/19.

Because of the above, your tender frames are riddled with alternative location holes for the wires to hold the spacers!There will be drawings provided for each of the types of motor, noting which holes to use.

This is the start of the description of the first test of the etched kit, warts and all!No doubt there will be revisions and alterations to be made as I go along.

Picture 1 shows the FRONT end of the working (sub) frames being assembled using the Association's Loco Frame Assembly jig (3-270). My jig is quite old, with the screws for setting on the 1.5mm diam. rod. Later versions have finger nuts.Note the supplied replacement mid spacer (fold up etch) between the frames and the outer brass parts of the jig.Also seen are the front two upright 'fingers' of the fold over brake hangers. These will eventually fold outwards to align with the wheels, then downwards, and be connected to the sub frames with wire 'rods'.